Tuesday, July 2, 2024
Year : 2, Issue: 31
When Beth Murphy’s late husband, Kevin James Murphy, was killed in the World Trade Center attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, she was battling cancer and had two young children.
“My husband was at my bedside crying, begging me to live,” she said. “I had a 50% chance of survival. Then he was killed, and my goal at every CAT scan was, ‘Oh my God, I can’t die. I have two children to take care of.’”
Murphy has spent much of the past 23 years raising her children and fighting for justice for her late husband and other 9/11 victims, despite facing another cancer diagnosis, heart problems and a stroke on the 20th anniversary of 9/11, which she attributes to stress.
Although U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin reversed a plea deal with the alleged mastermind of 9/11 and two accomplices on Friday, bringing the death penalty back into consideration, Murphy is outraged that a plea deal was even considered.
Although U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin reversed a plea deal with the alleged mastermind of 9/11 and two accomplices on Friday, bringing the death penalty back into consideration, Murphy is outraged that a plea deal was even considered.
“I had to tell my children that there was a plea deal,” Murphy said. “My children demand justice, our country demands justice.”
She and other loved ones of 9/11 victims believe this includes a maximum sentence of the death penalty and a trial date set by the Biden administration. The potential trial has been delayed due to various court actions since 2008.
Murphy joined U.S. Rep. Nicole Malliotakis, R-Staten Island, and other 9/11 families at the Postcards 9/11 Memorial on Staten Island Monday.
“Anything short of the death penalty is unacceptable,” Malliotakis said. “There should be zero mercy when it comes to these monstrous terrorists.”
“A trial is needed so the American people will learn the full truth of our darkest day,” said Terry Strada.
Some 9/11 families were open to the plea deal, which included the opportunity to question the accused terrorists. Strada, who was left to raise a 7-year-old, 4-year-old and 4-day-old after her husband Tom was killed in the attacks, is not among them.
“Without justice, it’s just this feeling that never goes away—that we’re being forgotten, people don’t care,” Strada said.
“Fighting for all these things for my children, all these laws to help victims of terrorism,” Murphy said. “That’s what all 9/11 families are trying to ensure, not only for our families but for future victims of terrorism.”
The White House previously stated it had no knowledge of the plea deals.
The torture that five defendants in the 11 attacks underwent while in CIA custody has slowed the cases and left the possibility of full trials uncertain, partly due to the inadmissibility of evidence tied to the torture.
Source: Spectrum NY1
